it's fitting that we're holding this meeting near the gabe zimmerman room. gabe was my son and he worked with your colleague, congresswoman gabby giffords. a man armed with high-capacity magazines and a semi automatic weapon shot the congresswoman then turned on the people who ran to see her. he murdered six, including my son and injured 13 people, including congressman ron barber with 31 bullets before retried to reload his magazine. only then did citizen heroes have the opportunity to tackle him to the ground and disarm him. on that will sunny day those people, including a 9-year-old girl not much older than the children killed in newtown were exercising their rights. their right to free of assembly, the right to freedom of speech. they were trying to be good citizens, participating in the democratic process. i'm sad beyond words at the death and injuries in tucson, aurora, newtown, and too many other places. i'm also angry that we, you and i, have made it so easy for these things to happen. we've allowed ourselves to overemphasize gun rights to the detrim

ben and gabe zimmerman. when i was district director for congresswoman giffords, gabe was the first person we hired. he was my transition buddy. we worked in a small office. i called it an office, gabe called it a closet, but it was a place where we put together the management of congresswoman giffords' staff and offices early on. he was my go-to guy. a young man with such compassion and caring that it's just beyond pale to think he's no longer with us. he learned about service from his mother. she served as i said for many years people who are disadvantaged in our community. it was gabe who set up the congresswoman's meeting on that fateful day on january 8. he was killed at that event. he died right beside me as i lay after being shot myself. i will never, ever forget the image of gabe dying by my side. i know for certain that his last action was to come and try to help us, help congresswoman giffords, help me, help judge john role, and for doing that he was shot. some of us here in congress meet regularly

used to shoot 19 of us in tucson within 45 seconds, killing six really good people, my colleague gabe zimmerman and christina taylor green, we have to act, for the mental health side and we have to do what we can to limit or eliminate access to these high-powered assault weapons and the high-capacity magazines that allowed so many people to be shot in such a short period of time. >> let me ask you this, as powerful as the nra is, it is not easy to fight gabby giffords. she has an enormous amount of support not only among her former congressmen, but across the country as well. she does elicit a lot of country, do you they they could work that to their advantage, how do you go up against gabby giffords and fight what she's doing? >> the congresswoman, as you point out is not only a national inspiration to all of us, but actually has a worldwide image that's very positive, and certainly her engaging as well as mark engaging, it will help a lot. you know, there are a lot of nra members in this country. we have significant evidence to suggest that they're not all opposed, in fact there may well be a

emily nottingham, mother of gabe zimmerman, a victim in tucson. scott knight, from minnesota to give us a deal from middle america. and mayor michael nutter who is been a leader on this issue for a long time. your voices and contributions play critical roles until our effort to take these long overdue actions. we look forward to hearing your ideas and testimony and answering the call to action on gun violence prevention. we especially are pleased to be doing so on the day when our president, as we continue to mourn with the families of newtown, has told us the time for action is now. we must do everything in our power to stop such terrifying violence in the future. we recognize the challenges are not new and as president obama said so eloquently, in the days following the shooting, we cannot tolerate this any more. the tragedy's must end and to end them, we must change, he said. today the president put his proposals on the table. he outlined 23 executive actions this administration is taking right now. he demanded action from congress on establish

emily, the mother of gabe zimmerman who was a victim in tucson nearly two years ago. scott night from the police department here in minnesota to give a view for middle america in the rural areas, and then michael nutter who has been a leader on this issue for a very long time. your voice as and your contributions are playing a critical role in our effort to take these long overdue actions. we look forward to hearing your ideas and testimonies and answering the call to action on gun violence prevention. .. >> we must address issues of mental health and keep weapons out of the hands in danger of doing harm to themselves or others. these commonsense proposals among others represent steps we can take and must take right away to stop the violence. as the president said today, this time must be different. we agree that we cannot permit anyone times go by without action and we over to the family and the victims of newtown, connecticut, aurora, colorado, virginia tech, the list goes on and on and on everyday. we have shootings -- too many of them across america. i am very ple

is among those who will speak along with the philadelphia mayor and natalie who is the son of gabe zimmerman who died in the 2011 two don, arizona shooting. house minority leader nancy pelosi is also scheduled to attend. that will be live this afternoon starting at 2:00 eastern here on c-span. on this morning's "washington journal," we were joined by house judiciary committee chair, bob goodlatte, who discussed the debate over guns laws. host: welcome back to the table, bob goodlatte, chairman of the house judiciary committee committee. thank you very much for talking to our viewers this morning. guest: thank you. good to be with you and the viewers. host: the president will speak at 11:45 and put forward what he would like to see happen on gun control. what are your thoughts? guest: first of all we are interested in what the vice president's commission and the president propose and we'll take a serious look at anything that they put on the table. we are also very mindful of the fact that there is a second amendment, constitutional right, to keep and bear arms and that that right was only re